Improvement in the construction of car-wheel-annealing pits



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CONSTRUCTION OF CAR-WHEEL ANNEALING PITS. No.178,Z4;9. Patented June6,1876

ATTEIRNEfiG ".FEFERS, FHOTO-UTHOGRAPMER. WASHNGTON. D C.

, 2 Sheets-SheetZ.

G. W. MOOERS.

CONSTRUCTION OF CAR-WHEELANNEALING PITS.

No. 178.249. Patented June 6, 1876.

INVENTEIRI ATTORNEY.

N. PETERS, PNOTO LITHOGRAFHEE WASHINGTON. D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT Orrron GEORGE W. MOOERS, OF WILKESBARRE,PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CAR-WHEEL-ANNEALING PITS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.

' March To all whom it may concern;

Be itknown that I, GEO. W. MOOERS, of Wilkesbarre, in the county ofLuzerne and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Oar-Wheel Pits, of which the following is aspecification: The object of this invention is to providea simple andeflicient means of annealing castiron car-wheels and metal disks ofsimilar character, whose central portions are composed of metal ingreater mass than the peripheral portions thereof. The principleunderlying this invention is not new, the said principle having been,more or less, efficiently carried out by various means, all of whichmeans, as well as thisinvention, seek 'to prevent the heat of theperipheral and smaller portions of the mass from escaping therefrom morerapidly than from the larger or central parts, which must always be thecase, because of said difi cast. The details of the invention will nowbe fully described.

In the accompanying drawing, forming partof this specification, Figure lisa longitudinal section through the annealing-pit and through one wheelplaced therein. Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the pit; and Fig. 3 is aplan of the pit with its plates for supporting the wheels, and havingtwowheels placed therein, showing the disposition of the sand used inthe'annealing process.

In these figures, A A are the walls of the pit, built, preferably, ofbrick, but they may be made of any suitable non-combustible material,and may be shaped out of the solid earth itself. B B are cast-ironplates, resting on top of said walls, and provided with holes throughtheir centers, whose diameters exceed the diameters of the hubs of thewheels to be placed in the pit sufficiently to allow of 178,249, datedJune 6, 1876; application filed 6, 1876.

a suitable air-space around said hubs, as well as through them. (J O arewheels placed over the holes in the plates B and D represents the sandas heaped over the rims of the wheels, and between the spokes of thewheels, as it falls in natural slopes toward the hubs, leavingair-spaces around the hubs, through and between the spokes of thewheels. If the wheels be cast with a solid web, instead of with spokes,then there will still be an air-passage through the eye of thehub, butonly an annular air-space around its top and bottom edge.- The web beingsolid, noair can pass entirely around the outside of the hub, as it doesaround a wheel provided with spokes.

annealing, and suitable and uniform contraction, of all parts of thewheels while cooling in said pit, is as follows: The wheels beingalready-cast and suificiently solid for removal from their molds, aretaken therefrom while red hot,'and placed, as shown in the drawing, uponthe plates B in the pit A. A proper quantity of sand is then packed overthe rims of the wheels and over their spokes or webs, and extended up towithin the desired distance of the hubs. The cores of the hubs are thenremoved, leaving the airspaces in and around said hubs, as alreadydescribed. The circulation of the air will be as indicated by the arrowsin the drawing. The operation being thus completed, the annealing forceswill go wheels are cool enough to be taken from the pit. No unequalcontraction having taken place, the whole mass of metal composing awheel will be of homogeneous structure, without internal strain orexternal contortion, crystallization and molecular distribution takingplace to the best advantage for the strength of the metal.

and around hubs of wheels in a specially-constructed oven, especiallyprovided with a cope, and hearth and pipes and dampers cona much greatercost, both of time and materials, than the pit'herein described, and isnot adapted to the varying sizes of.wheels by a simple interchange ofplates, as is the wheelpit forming the subject of this invention. The

The operation of this pit in effecting the on without further care orattention, until the I am aware that air has been forced through nectedto a chimney. Such an oven involves.

simplicity, facility, and cheapness of its construction, its efficiencyand its ready manipulation, constitute the chief merits of thisinvention.

Having thus fully described this improved annealing-pit, as of myinvention, I claim- In an annealing-pit, and in combination with thewalls A, the removable supportingplate B, provided with a centralopening of a size varying with that of the wheel or other casting to beannealed, substantially as herein described. V

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own'I aflix my signaturein presence of twowitnesses.

GEORGE W. MOOERS.-

Witnesses O. B. SUTTON, E. THOMAS.

